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Group affect

So I'm reading this article on group mood while sitting in 61C. Individual moods combine depending on context and body language into a group-level affective state. There is one couple a few tables away, but everyone else is sitting alone. The guy to my left is making flashcards for the bar exam, and the woman to my right is underlining every sentence in a hardback book. We've already established that I'm pretentiously compiling code. The Garden State soundtrack is playing. First that Colin Hay song ("I just don't think I'll ever get over you"). Now the Simon and Garfunkel one ("Only living boy in New York"). Maybe I'm just projecting, but there's some pretty thick group affect going on here. If they don't change the music soon, I think there will be a mass student suicide.
February 01, 2006 : 10:31 PM
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Comments

Is underlining every sentence in a book sad? The people I know who do that do it because they are really excited about the book.
posted by Anonymous jcreed : February 02, 2006 9:07 AM : link to this comment  
No, not sad at all. Maybe a little compulsive, but I've been known to underline multiple consecutive paragraphs in articles from excitement. And fold the corners of library books. (Shhh!) It just seemed a little unfortunate that she was increasing the signal to noise ratio so much in a hardback book.
posted by Blogger Moira : February 02, 2006 9:19 AM : link to this comment  
The thought I've always had about it is that if you're underlining more than half the material, the underlining entropy is only going down with increased underlining anyway.
posted by Anonymous jcreed : February 02, 2006 9:21 AM : link to this comment  
If (nearly) every sentence is that good, then, why not leave the pages pristine? Then build a little shrine for the book. I have some plywood and glitter you could borrow.
posted by Blogger Moira : February 02, 2006 9:26 AM : link to this comment  
If your blog allowed strikethrough I would have written
<s>that's okay I have my own glitter</s>
posted by Anonymous jcreed : February 02, 2006 9:28 AM : link to this comment  
I prefer the neater vertical-line-down-the-outer-edge-of-the-paragraph technique when large chunks of text are significant. My point is made; risk of entropy is reduced.
posted by Anonymous Margaret : February 02, 2006 4:37 PM : link to this comment  
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About
Moira Burke

Psst! This is the blog of Moira Burke, a Ph.D. student in the HCI Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Rife with derivative pop culture blather, this site occasionally features thoughts on social psychology, usability, aesthetics, and the general meanderings of someone figuring out the meaning of life. Won't you help me find it?

my first name @ this domain name

Also see: Veggieburgh, my restaurant and recipe site

Previous ten posts
  • I could've just installed the binaries
  • Lexical ambiguity
  • Je ne veux pas travailler
  • Perfect morning
  • What all the cool kids are wearing
  • Reading
  • Stolen moment
  • Closest thing to telepathic cookie delivery
  • Abusing my interlibrary loan privileges
  • Collective experience
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